"Leonard, are you alright?" Klein asked softly when he saw his teammate fall silent.
"Ah, of course."
"That... wasn't I trying to help you clear your name?"
"I was thinking if someone was maliciously reporting you. While investigating in that direction, I found you had some connection with this Lorne Disonke, so I wanted to investigate."
"But I didn't find any useful information, so I came to ask you."
Leonard used a half-truthful excuse to help Klein prove his innocence, which was true, and his desire to know the other party's secret was also true.
Half-truths easily conceal one's intentions.
Connection... there really is one, although this Lorne also has quite a few connections with my sister, and... Leonard, your excuse-making skills are really bad.
"Is that so...?"
Klein didn't say anything, just nodded innocently. He could, of course, tell that Leonard's words were a bit off, but he didn't point it out.
At least from Leonard's current performance, it could be seen that he merely knew the name Lorne Disonke and had not established contact with him.
So, even though the report letter was most likely from Lorne Disonke, Klein didn't plan to reveal any useful information.
Otherwise, Leonard would definitely go find Lorne to get to the bottom of it, and in that case, not only would he be unable to prove his innocence, but it would also make things more chaotic.
Seeing that Klein had no reaction, Leonard chuckled twice to cover his embarrassment. Then, the two exchanged a few simple pleasantries and waved goodbye to each other.
"Old man, what do you think? Should we go find that Lorne Disonke?" Leonard asked his internal neighbor softly.
"No need, that person should not be an enemy."
A moment later, Pales adopted the tone of an elder, speaking earnestly.
"Put away your curiosity, don't create new problems."
...
Adhering to the principle of 'do it when you say it', Lorne displayed extremely high efficiency.
"Meow~" Lachi, lying on the bed, looked up at her host struggling at the desk, rolled over, and continued to sleep.
But just as he started writing, Lorne thought of something.
"rosell's diary is so valuable; there must have been many forgeries before. If I'm going to write one, it has to look real to sell."
"Just writing a bunch of gibberish definitely won't work; it's too fake."
"Theoretically, translating a language requires a lot of comparison, but Rosell is the only one."
Lorne certainly wouldn't believe that someone could decipher Chinese just by reading rosell's diary.
It's a fantasy to translate all Chinese merely through some diary entries.
If it were the initial pictograms, it might be possible, but these are simplified characters that have undergone many years of evolution; the possibility is almost zero.
The most obvious corroboration is that even though rosell's diary contains a lot of hidden knowledge, the Official still allows it to circulate.
Thinking of this, Lorne rolled his eyes.
Diary, diary...
"rosell's diary has been in the world for so many years."
"Although outside, it is called Rosell's notes."
"But surely smart people would have discovered something."
"The most common dates and the meanings corresponding to those numbers have probably been analyzed."
"The forged diary needs to include these dates to make it more real."
After making up his mind, Lorne picked up his pen and started writing, but he struggled when it came to the female protagonist.
"What should the female protagonist be called?"
Although he could just make one up, Lorne planned to show some respect for history.
Suddenly, a mischievous thought flashed through his mind.
"Rosell overthrew the Sauron family back then. If, after that, he had something going on with some descendants of the Sauron family, it doesn't seem impossible."
"Defeat CG!"
Lorne was startled by his own thought, but upon closer inspection, he found it quite reasonable.
"Honestly, with Rosell's personality, he might really do it."
Based on Lorne's impression of Rosell, the Great Emperor Caesar was very likely to do such a thing, and he might even find it very exciting.
"Anyway, I plan to be a plagiarist in the future, so let's just consider this finding inspiration in advance."
Thus, the female lead of this scandalous diary was decided to be Miss Sauron.
...
After passionately writing a scandalous diary, Lorne was not very satisfied with the finished product.
"No, even though I haven't written Chinese for a long time and my handwriting is very rusty, it's still too neat."
Lorne was not satisfied with this first version.
It was the first time he felt disappointed because his handwriting was too neat.
"Need to pay attention to quality control."
With that thought, Lorne chose to copy it again, this time using his other hand.
...
"Still no, it's still not rusty enough."
Lorne found that the effect in his mind and the actual presented effect might not be consistent. This might also be due to nervousness, as it was his first time counterfeiting.
"This, I can't possibly write with my feet, can I?"
...
"At this time, the boss is either sending telegrams or writing logs; he shouldn't be in the room..."
Clown's palms were sweaty, and the brass doorknob was so slippery it almost slipped from his grasp.
This morning, while the boss was away, he briefly flipped through the notebook and roughly found the content he needed.
But a cursory glance could only pinpoint the approximate location of the required content.
It was unrealistic to memorize all the important content in such a short time; even as a Beyonder, he couldn't truly achieve photographic memory.
He pressed his ear against the oak door and listened for half a minute, confirming there was no sound in the room before pushing the door open.
The door creaked open slightly, and Clown squeezed half his body inside, finding the gas lamp in the room still on. The dim light shone on Clown's face, making him instinctively clench his hands.
He gently looked up and scanned the room. Only after confirming that his boss was truly not there did he slowly move his entire body inside.
He took out a camera from his Arms and gently wiped it twice... his actions today depended entirely on it.
This was a special portable camera, a spy tool. Due to special modifications, its size was greatly reduced compared to normal cameras on the market, and it was used only for certain espionage missions.
This camera was a souvenir from a past mission, and he had always kept it carefully preserved.
Before tonight, he had never imagined he would use this thing for this purpose.
"I didn't expect the boss to have careless moments too."
Looking at the notebook lying on the desk, not put away, Clown felt a hint of schadenfreude.
He knelt on one knee in front of the captain's desk, his boots leaving two damp marks on the carpet.
"Damn it." The moment he stepped on the carpet, Clown noticed it; it was evening dew.
But fortunately, there wasn't much dew, and the marks weren't too obvious.
"Click... click..."
One picture, two pictures. After making sure he had captured all the necessary content, Clown breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
Just those two clicks of the shutter, he felt his heart was about to pound out of his chest, more nervous than when he faced that Demoness.
Of course, not the one on the bed.
With his objective achieved, Clown turned to leave, but as soon as he turned, he felt a pang of unease. His boss's face, as if by some ghostly intervention, appeared in his mind.
"Boss..." Thinking of Magician's face, Clown felt a bit worried. He knew very well what kind of personality his boss had.
Although he seemed very strict, he had always been a person with a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
If he found out what he was doing now, he would definitely be scolded to death.
Honestly, if his boss were a bad superior, his guilt might be a little lighter, but doing such a thing under the nose of a superior who cared for his subordinates, he still felt a bit...
"Forget it, I'm doing this for promotion, to better carry out missions."
After successfully convincing himself, Clown tiptoed out of Magician's room.